Potatoes.

The Metropolitan 11, 1831

A French publication denies to Sir John Sinclair the merit of having discovered the means of producing a fine colour from the flower of the potato; and asserts that the Frenchmen of science have long stated the practicability of apply ing the water and the flower of the potato to the purposes of dyeing. It says that M. Fouques has shown by experiments that linen and cotton, plunged into potatowater, acquire a grey colour; and that in 1817, a chemist of Copenhagen pointed out, in a scientific journal, a simple method of obtaining a fine yellow colour from the flowers of the solanum tuberosum. He dyed with it linen, cotton, and even woollen cloth, which took a very solid green colour on immersion in a blue dye.